Stumbled across an interesting article from wired: OS X Makes Slow Debut on PC. The article concerns a software package released (last week?) entitled PearPC. PearPC is the first software emulator to allow Apple Computer’s OS X to run on an Intel- or AMD-based machine. It is in early beta stages and runs about 500 times slower than a host system, but it is an interesting step to say the least. There are some serious problems with the emulator and OS X 10.3, and the software emulator is most definitely not production grade. Use at own risk, do not use on a production system.

The fans saved Enterprise. UPN has cancelled their plans to cancel Enterprise, but they’ve moved it into the worst timeslot in Prime Time, Fridays at 9pm (re: Dark Angel and Firefly). UPN also mentioned that they are going to redesign the series around the format of the third season, which has garnered Enterprise critical acclaim.

In addition to Enterprise, what will I have to watch this fall (from the other networks besides Sci-Fi, re: Battlestar Galactic and Farscape)? ABC, for once, has a series that has some appeal to me. “Empire” is an eight-episode series chronicling the power struggle in Rome in 44 B.C. after Julius Caesar is murdered. From the description it sounds like an interesting weave of history and fiction which should make for an entertaining run … assuming, of course, that ABC doesn’t pull the plug.

Another one is Fox’s Point Pleasant, series dealing with supernatural stuff. A young woman washes up on the shores of Point Pleasant after her ship sinks. “Her presence begins to have a noticeable effect on the townsfolk, in particular the two women of the Kramer family. [...] She possesses a duality that seems hard to reconcile: She’s at once dangerous and saintly.” It is headed by Marti Noxon (one of the executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) so I figure I’ll give it a chance.

Then there is NBC new series entitled “Americana”. All I can find about it is that it stars Allyson Hannigan and is a comedy of sorts. That has bought it a couple of episodes. Hopefully it will be interesting.

Oh, and the WB strikes again. Production on The Robinsons: Lost in Space has sputtered to a stop thanks to writer Doug Petrie leaving the show due to “Creative Differences”. Translation: WB told him how they wanted the show and he told ‘em to shove it (or at least that’s what I’m thinking). This, obviously, has left a gaping hole in WB’s Fall line up (bring back Angel for two months!). The show, though, is expected to air on the WB in January 2005 … where it will have to compete against Sci-Fi’s Battlestar Galactica which, btw, started shooting on April 14th.

I really hate the imperial system. I keep hearing the americans whining that their gas prices. According to GasPriceWatch, the current average in the US is $2.04/gallon. To me, this sounds extremely low. They call his high, but it is going to get worse and many regions (california for example) have already passed the $3 per Gallon mark. It is expected by the end of next month, that the entire country (US) will be at $3/gallon or higher. So what exactly are they paying for gas? At a current exchange (1.3766/0.7264), that would be $2.82/gallon and $4.13/gallon respectively. 1 Gallon = 3.7854118 litres. So that means right now at their “high” prices they are paying 74.5 cents per litre. Not bad considering when I refueled last night it was 95.5 per litre here. So if it hits its peak, how much will they be paying? $1.09 per litre. I think we are going to bet ‘em there … but at least fuel prices will finally be more equal between us and the yanks down south. I can see why they’re angry … paying as much as the people who supply them with their oil. That’s just wrong right?

What do you mean we supply them with oil … we aren’t an oil producing country, are we? Fuck yah we are. According to Oil & Gas Journal, as of January 2004, Canada’s total proven crude oil reserves stood at 178.9 billion barrels. This means we trail only Saudi Arabia, which holds the most proven crude oil reserves in the world. That doesn’t mean we have the most oil, it just means we have the second largest proven deposits in the world. In addition to this, we are a major source of U.S. oil imports. From January & February 2004, the United States imported an average of 3.5 million barrels/day from Canada, making us their largest oil source at roughly 20% of their total oil imports [ source: (US) Energy Information Administration. Most of that is localized though. The mid-west (PADD III) get 69% of their oil from Canada, and the The Rocky Mountain Region (PADD IV) of the US gets all their oil from Canada. A disruption in trade would serious cripple the western part of the United States. Just as a note, there is a massive pipeline junction in Alberta that feeds the western US … if it were destroyed there would be massive economic chaos in western states like Colorado which would ripple out across the entire continental US.

Not that I’d ever advocate blowing anything up or engaging in an terrorist activity, it’s just the Americians seem to forget how dependent upon us they are (don’t get me mentioning natural gas or power) … and now they are whining about high gas prices … well fuck them. Not only we have been paying more than them all this time, we will probably continue to do so. Moreover, the increased gas prices (which Canada really didn’t have to raise … it’s just the market went up so we followed … it’s not like it suddenly got more expensive to get oil) is expected to increase the Canadian economic growth by 3.6% in 2004. Considering our less than stellar growth since the Americians began their recession, this is good news. To any Americans reading, you don’t like this, switch to hydrogen. I want non-gas powered vehicles and consider this a good reason to make it happen now, not in 2010.

In a wonderful revealation I had today (thanks Ricky!), Smoking is to be officially banned in all public places as of 2005 in SK. It’s about time, IMO. If Ireland can go without smoke in their pubs, then so can we! We shall just have to pick up the slack with the wonderful beverages those facilites offer.

You can read what the LeaderPost wrote here .

“Of course I’ve got lawyers. They are like nuclear weapons: I’ve got em coz everyone else has. But as soon as you use them they screw everything up.”

— Danny de Vito, “Other People’s Money”

So remember that Condo I bought, with the nice shiny Tax Abatement. Well it seems my builders screwed up and lost their zoning permit due to making the driveways too wide on Atkinson Street. What does this have to do with my Tax Abatement? Well it makes it cease to exist, well at least this year which means instead of paying like $300 in taxes I’m paying now $2300 in taxes. Fun. Which means I need to locate like another $200 a month in income that I don’t have by June 30th. On top of this great fun, they can’t finish construction until they get a new zoning permit. Which means I’m not getting an air conditioner nor a patio anytime soon. This pisses me off even more! ARGH! I do have neighbours though, and all of them just got as screwed as I, so I’m thinking we get together and talk nicely with the builders about their false claims. Sure, I still get my five year tax abatement, but not this year, when I need it the most. Hell, over 70% of my income is going to bill payments already. With the extra $200 a month, it would become an insane 80% of my income … and out of that 20% I have other debts to pay! ARGH! I wish to lash out and hurt something …

I know that everyone here has heard of Strong Bad and the wonderful antics at Homestar Runner but I thought I would pass along the latest Strong Bad E-Mail, since it has a “deustch” flavour to it…. be sure to go after the hidden parts!

Those of you that have had to suffer my presence since last Sunday know that I have murdered the last Windows installation on a computer I own. If I could get Delg to switch, there wouldn’t be a single system in my condo with a windows installation on it. With that said, I’ve been overly joyed this week. I’ve been dancing around, and telling anyone who’ll listen that I’ve been Windows free for X days (today, it would be six days!). So far I’ve only encountered three problems: Getting rid of what remains of my NTFS partitions, playing the movie clip of Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (mov) [A tune that sends chills up the spines of any so fortunate to have it caress their eardrums ... **shudder**], and finding a completely suitable replacement to VirtualDub (Avidemux is not suitable, by far … it can’t rebuild an AVI index the way it needs to be rebuilt … nor can mencoder … very annoying). Luckily, I’ve been told that VirtualDub will run under WINE now, The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins is not a major loss to me, and the partition problem will be fixed today if the data I was dumping onto Delg’s computer is done transferring … LVM here I come! Moreover, they are not the probleme of the OS, but other factors that are slightly annoying.

In any case, there is a point to all this: Would you seriously consider adopting Linux for your desktop PC? (poll by Globetechnology).

I was reading the National Post this morning (that in and of itself should be reason enough for professional help), and noticed the front page (surpising huh) which is dedicated to Al-Qaeda beheading an American civilian. Apparently the video was posted on the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist Web site … and honest to god, the first thing that went through my head was, what’s the url? I’ve never considered myself overly morbid and I had no wish to really see the video, but I was annoyed that they referenced a web site and hadn’t provide me with the url … then I realized what it would link to. Have you read the description? It’s not like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi took off Nick Berg’s head with an axe or something else that made it quick. Hell no! He sawed off Nick’s head with a knife! What kind of sick people do that? I understand the building thing, hell I even understand the random bombings of civilians … but those, to me, are all impersonal … He sawed Nick’s head off with knife, while Nick is screaming (obviously) and his buddies are chanting “God is Great.” I don’t know about you, but any religious diety that condones an act of savage brutality as such does not deserve the title “Great”. Then again, there is the beliefs of the Satanists in John Ringo’s “Empire of Man” series who believe god has been chained up by the other angels and Lucifer tried to free him and ended up getting cast out into Hell. And these evil angels have been running the kingdom for thousands of years, relishing in the bloodshed of religious violence (the Crusades, all their doing).

I once again reiterate my opinion of having Gene Elimination Squads wiping out certain aspects of humanity. Let’s start with the religous fanatics who saw off other people’s heads. Then let’s move onto the sadistic bastards who abuse positions of power and responsibility to cause misery and harm to others. Do these people not read the classics?

Except from Chapter 17 of Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince:

Upon this a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you successed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by nobility or greatness of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserved you by a dread of punishment which never fails.

Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women.

— Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, ed. W. K. Marriott. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1908

Wow, was that ever a bad movie. That was the first thought on my mind Friday as the movie came to a close. The random grunting from my friend Cameron beside me the entire movie confirmed that it wasn’t just me. I realized that they tried to go with the whole retro-50s horror movie thing, but did they ever screw it up. They took all the elements that made those movies bad, and threw away all the elements that made ‘em good.

Okay, enough of my introduction. What did I like? The cow scene. That was hilarious. The Friar. He too was amusing. The Special Effects. Even thought the plot was boring as hell, the movie was very pretty. What did I not like? The less than one-dimensional characters who had no personality. The only character with any personality to him was the afore mentioned Friar, but he was a supporting character! The movie is just bad. It is kind of predictable (except when it does things that defy logic), it lacks depth, and did I mention that the characters were like flimsy paper? I honestly gave the movie a chance, but there were parts there were main characters were in peril and I’m like … kill them … please! In fact, I couldn’t care who died, villian or hero. I usually find my self cheering for the villian and am always annoyed when they die … but the villians in this movie were even less substantial than the heros … I love a good villian … but without a good plot, a good villian is wasted. Luckily there wasn’t a good villian so all was okay … in a twisted sense I guess … And what was up with the whining scene with the brides and Dracula after Helsing took out one of their number? Could the dialogue get any worse or make any less sense?

I want my $10 back … and the 2-3 hrs of my life it stole! This movie is so bad, it isn’t even worthy of mystery science 3k’ing it or laughing at it. Hell, I found Jeepers Creepers more enjoyable than this movie … and let me tell you Jeepers Creepers was a bad movie … but at least it was one we could easily make fun of … There was nothing in Van Helsing. Nothing at all. It was just bad. Very Very Bad. It sucked.